We don't stop using strategic communications when it comes to reaching out to multilingual news media.

The first question we always ask ourselves when contemplating a news release is: “Is this a legitimate news item or a solid feature story?” If the answer is “no,” then we think about disseminating that information using other Foundation communications vehicles, such as the “What’s New” sections found on www.tcwf.org and in Portfolio. Announcements on our grant awards are rarely handled with news releases; they are publicized through our newsletter and website. We issue news releases on grants only when there is a major change to our overall grantmaking program or a significant amount of funding made to a specific area. We know that journalists generally do not perceive grants or philanthropy as news, unless there is a major amount of money awarded by larger-than-life philanthropists such as Ted Turner or Bill Gates.

Contrary to perceptions of our Foundation, we don’t send out a lot of news releases each year, yet many of our grantees receive significant news coverage. We believe this is because we are selective about the use of this communications tactic and because our stories have been picked up by local news media markets from our journalistically written newsletter and website.

When we do reach out to journalists, it typically involves more than a simple English-language news release to the major outlets. An example of our media relations program is the announcement of the Foundation’s Violence Prevention Initiative California Peace Prize, which has been awarded annually to three unsung heroes who have successfully prevented violence in their communities. Each honoree receives $25,000. We assertively approach local and statewide news media to promote the California Peace Prize honorees, and they garner tremendous coverage. Not only is the coverage secured for the individuals, but also for key messages from our Violence Prevention Initiative — namely that violence is a public health problem that is preventable and that individuals can and do make a difference in saving people’s lives.

We don’t stop thinking about strategic communications when it comes to integrating multilingual news media relations in our outreach. For our Foundation, news media relations outreach in California has to address multilingual media — period. In fact, depending upon the story we are pushing to journalists, it can often mean we think first in non-English languages, then we figure out the angle for so-called “general market” media.

For example, one of our California Peace Prize honorees was a Cambodian-American who left the killing fields of Southeast Asia only to encounter violence against Asian youth in Orange County. We worked with our Asian communications firm to make sure that the honoree’s work and the concepts of violence being a public health problem and preventable were culturally and linguistically appropriate in the materials we prepared. We did not simply do a literal translation of what we created for the general market media. We also relied on our communications firm’s expertise to guide us in more than a translation of words. We wanted to make sure our ads, news releases and website information helped amplify the voices of our honorees’ advocacy efforts in a way that was meaningful to the community he served. It was also important to make sure the information in Cambodian was approved by the honoree, since he would live with its impact long after our communications efforts were finished.

California is home to some of the most influential media organizations in the country. Los Angeles’ top-rated television station is KMEX, the flagship of national Spanish-language network Univision. For several years now, the station has consistently received higher ratings than the English-language stations. There are more than 200 newspapers in our state that reach the Asian/Pacific Islander audience, making California home to the largest number of Asian newspapers (Hawaii previously had this distinction). And radio aimed at youth, often with formats that represent the contemporary urban hip-hop music created by African-Americans, represents an important force in communicating with youth of all colors.

The sheer concentration of diverse media has also spawned important journalism associations in our state that have influenced national media. This past year, we piloted a media partnership program with the objective of identifying key journalism organizations and print, broadcast and Internet media to highlight the work of our grantees in ways that go beyond news media relations. These partnerships involve using administrative dollars from the communications department’s budget to underwrite the participation of the Foundation’s grantees in specific media events and conferences, special news productions and print sections, or ongoing news/feature coverage of topics that are aligned with the Foundation’s funding areas and mission. We have already seen an impressive number of grantees secure coverage for their programs or be positioned as future contacts for journalists to pursue. Examples of these partnerships follow.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Health attracts more than 65,000 attendees. The Foundation underwrites three grantees to set up a booth to provide health information and/or screenings to the public. We place a print advertisement in the Times’ special health supplement, link to its website, and send news releases to encourage festival attendance from organizations, many of which are our grantees.

The ABC-affiliate KGTV in San Diego has produced documentaries for the past several years on violence prevention, the uninsured and mental health. Our Foundation partners with the San Diego-based Alliance Health Care Foundation to underwrite the television station’s presentation of the programs, which also feature call-ins, website links to www.tcwf.org and printed materials available to the public.

New California Media (NCM) is a statewide organization that represents alternative and ethnic media in the state. The Foundation co-sponsors the group, along with other funders such as the Ford Foundation, to present a major conference attracting more than 1,000 journalists representing ethnic, alternative and general market media. The Foundation worked with NCM to present a panel on environmental health that included journalists, a Foundation grantee and our program director who oversees this funding area.

Berkeley-based Youth Radio, a recent Peabody award winner, received underwriting support from the Foundation to establish a Los Angeles-based pilot program aimed at identifying at-risk youth to train them to become radio producers. The programs are aired on public radio and often feature health topics or issues, such as violence and foster care, that can affect the health of youth.

The California Chicano News Media Association (CCNMA) is the nation’s oldest Latino media organization that later founded the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Based at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications, most of CCNMA’s 800-plus statewide members work for California’s key general market and Latino media. We co-presented with the association a panel of journalists that focused on media gatekeepers and the news judgment they exercise when it comes to covering violence and youth of color. The Foundation arranged for one of our grantees, the Berkeley Media Studies Group, to participate in the panel and share its report titled “Reporting on Violence: New Ideas for Television, Print and Web.”

Los Angeles-based La Opinion is the nation's largest Spanish-language daily newspaper. The Foundation has placed ads in the paper's health supplement to highlight health promotion efforts of TCWF grantees, such as the nonprofit Las Memorias/Strike Out AIDS Project, and its partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers.